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EAT 
AND  GROW  THIN 

THE  MAHDAH  MENUS 


WITB  A  PREFACE  BY 

VANCE  THOMPSON 


NEW  YORK 

EP-DUTTON  ^  COMPANY 

PUBUSHERS 


8i 


48 


Copyright,  1914 
By  E.  P.  BUTTON  &  COMPANY 


"Moneo,  Domine,  ut  sis  prudens  ad  victum.' 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface     

I     The  Tragedy  of  Fat        ....  1 

II     The  Wrong  Way 5 

III  The  Right  Way 11 

IV  The  Fat  Man  in  Broadway        .      .18 
V     Rather  Personal 22 

VI     About  the  Book 29 

How  TO  Eat  and  Grow  Thin       ....  33 

"Forbidden   Food" 36 

Don't 40 

The  Laws  of  Diet 41 

Menus  December,  January,  February       .  53 

March,  April,  May 60 

June,  July,  August 67 

September,  October,  November      ...  74 

Recipes 81 

Mussels  Mariniere 83 

Eggplant .84 

Barsch  (Duck,  Polish  Style)   .      .      .,     .  85 

Dolmas 86 

Veal  Klopps 88 

Salads  and  Dressing 88 

Diet  Dressing 88 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Sorrel  and  Lettuce         .      ,      .      .      .      .89 

Chives 90 

Hashed  Lamb  Salad 90 

Fish  Salad 90 

Harlequin  Salad 91 

Artichokes   (Vinaigrette) 91 

Eussian  Salad 92 

Sourkrout  Salad 92 

Pineapple  Salad 92 

Greens 93 

The  Reason  Why 94 


A  PREFACE 

BY 

VANCE  THOMPSON 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF    FAT 

"^  I  ^HE  fate  of  nations  depends 
A  upon  how  they  are  fed." 
This  historic  remark  was  made  a  cen- 
tury ago — shortly  after  the  battle 
of  Waterloo — ^by  that  meditative 
Frenchman,  Brillat-Savarin.  He  had 
seen  the  mighty  French  empire  fall  to 
pieces  in  the  hands  of  a  fat  Napoleon. 
He  had  foretold  the  sad  event  as  he 
watched  the  young  hero  take  on 
paunch  and  jowls — and  join  the  gro- 
tesque band  of  the  gastrophori.  No 
one  heeded  him.    He  was  a  prophet 


2     EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

without  honor.  And  when  the  fat 
man  fell — and  shook  Europe  to  pieces 
— he  wrote  his  famous  essay  on  cor- 
pulency, in  which  he  tried  (as  so  many 
have  vainly  tried  I)  to  lead  mankind 
out  into  the  lean  pastures  of  life. 
With  what  splendid  clamor  did  he 
trumpet  the  joys  of  going  hungry — 
not  as  an  end  in  itself,  but  as  a  way 
to  aesthetic  tenuity. 

And  mankind  went  on  being  fat. 

It  did  not  want  to  be  fat;  but  it  did 
want  to  sit  at  table  and  eat  of  roasted 
and  boiled  and  stewed  and  baked  and 
— with  gloomy  resignation — it  ac- 
cepted the  hulking  consequences. 
And  fat  generation  followed  fat  gen- 
eration in  a  procession,  at  once  tragic 
and  grotesque,  over  the  quaking  earth. 
Of    course    there    were   some,    even 


THE  TRAGEDY  OF  FAT     3 

among  Brillat-Savarin's  contempo- 
raries, who  battled  against  corpulency. 
Lord  Byron,  a  poet  famous  in  those 
years,  tried  to  starve  out  the  enemy — 
and  bombarded  him  with  soda-water 
bottles  and  vinegar-cruets — in  vain. 
In  our  day  the  battle  has  been  more 
fiercely  waged.  Men  and  women  of 
the  first  social  importance  have  fasted 
and  rolled  on  the  floor  in  calisthenic 
contortions.  Perhaps  they  have  tri- 
umphed in  a  measure;  perhaps  they 
have  gone  forth  to  table  with  a  more 
awful  and  more  formidable  appetite. 

The  tragedy  of  fat ! 

One  could  write  books,  plays,  poems 
on  the  subject.  One  thinks  of  the 
beautiful  women  one  has  known — 
loved  perhaps — who  have  vanished 
forever,  drowned  in  an  ocean  of  turbu- 


4     EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

lence  and  tallow;  of  actresses  who 
filled  one's  soul  with  shining  dreams — 
and  now  the  dreams  are  wrecked  on 
huge  promontories;  of  statesmen  and 
rulers  who  cumber  the  earth,  now 
mere  teeth  and  stomach,  as  though 
God  had  created  them,  like  Mirabeau, 
only  to  show  to  what  extent  the  human 
skin  can  be  stretched  without  break- 
ing.    The  tragedy  of  fat ! 

An  ancient  man  said:  "Plures 
crapula  quam  gladius'' — gluttony 
kills  more  than  the  sword;  but  the 
saddest  part  is  that  it  kills  with  a  death 
more  horrible.  One  may  face  with 
fair  courage  the  lean  and  bony  fellow 
with  the  scythe — meet  him  with  grim 
fortitude;  but  the  boldest  man  shud- 
ders at  the  thought  of  a  fat  death;  as 
one  who  sinks  in  a  sebaceous  sea. 


II 

THE    WRONG   WAY 

IT  is  a  melancholy  fact  that  one  is 
what  one  is  born  to  be.  One's  des- 
tiny is  written  more  or  less  clearly  on 
one's  face.  Thus,  statisticians  aver, 
out  of  a  hundred  persons  who  die  of 
consumption,  ninety  have  brown  or 
fair  hair,  a  long  face  and  a  sharp  nose. 
This  calculation  may  not  be  scrupu- 
lously exact,  but  there  is  less  doubt  as 
to  the  assertion  that  out  of  a  hundred 
who  are  corpulent  there  are  ninety 
with  short  faces,  round  eyes  and  blunt 
noses.  Young  and  beautiful  a  girl 
passes — she  is  dainty,  rosy,  alert,  with 
a  roguish  nose  and  adorable  cheeks; 

5 


6     EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

but  one  knows  that  a  little  further 
down  the  road  of  life  she  will  be  seized 
upon  by  the  Occult  Powers  and  muf- 
fled in  fat — for  that  destiny  is  written 
in  her  round,  young  face. 

And  is  there  neither  cure  nor  pallia- 
tion? 

There  are — on  the  assurance  of  a 
distinguished  statesman  who  has  tried 
them  all — at  least  one  hundred  obes- 
ity cures.  One  may  boil  out  the  fat 
or  bake  it  out  or  drug  it  out;  one  may 
resort  to  the  more  natural — and  more 
economical — method  of  the  hibernat- 
ing bear,  and  live  on  it.  Unfortu- 
nately all  these  methods  have  two  irre- 
mediable defects : 

In  the  first  place,  they  are  not  per- 
manent; 

And,  secondly,  they  are  injurious. 


THE  WRONG  WAY         7 

It  is  evident  that  a  fat  man  in  tolera- 
ble health — he  is  never  in  perfect 
health,  for  a  fat  man  is  an  ill  man — 
can  boil  out  a  great  deal  of  his  fat  in  a 
Russian  bath,  but  the  cure  is  neither 
lasting  nor  safe.  There  was  a  Pari- 
sian banker,  a  few  years  ago,  who  may 
serve  as  an  illustrative  warning.  He 
had  grown  very  corpulent,  weighing 
awful  hundreds  of  pounds ;  and,  natu- 
rally enough,  his  affairs  went  to  the 
bad.  (There  is  a  strange  kinship  be- 
tween obesity  and  financial  crime — 
almost  all  embezzlers  are  fat.)  With 
what  funds  he  could  filch  from  the 
bank  he  fled  to  a  provincial  town. 
There  he  spent  every  day  in  a  Turkish 
bath,  going  stealthily  to  his  lodgings 
at  dusk.  At  the  end  of  six  weeks  his 
own  wife  would  not  have  known  him. 


8      EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

The  fat  had  sluiced  from  him  like 
melted  butter  from  a  colander.  Con- 
fident that  no  one  would  recognize  in 
him  the  fat  banker,  he  walked  the 
streets  boldly.  And  at  the  first  corner 
the  police  arrested  him.  They  did  not 
know  him;  they  arrested  him  simply 
because  he  looked  as  though  he  should 
be  locked  up — he  looked  like  a  man 
who  had  stolen  a  fat  man's  skin  and 
was  running  away  in  it.  The  skin 
hung  and  flapped  in  dry  folds  on  his 
cheeks  and  neck;  when  they  undressed 
him  the  sight  was  more  awful  still. 
The  detectives  (the  French  detectives 
are  the  shrewdest  in  the  world)  fed 
him  carbonaceous  food  and  in  a  few 
weeks  he  puffed  out  to  his  former  di- 
mensions, when  they  had  no  difficulty 


THE  WRONG  WAY         9 

in  identifying  him  as  the  runaway 
banker. 

All  the  violent  anti-obesity  cures  are 
touched  with  this  defect — they  work 
no  permanent  result  and,  in  addition, 
though  they  may  destroy  the  fat  they 
leave  the  body  shriveled,  wrinkled, 
uncomely.  One  might  as  well  be  fat 
as  to  walk  the  earth  in  a  fat  man's 
misfit  skin.  And  one  had  far  better 
be  fat  than  ruin  one's  digestion  with 
drugs,  weaken  the  body  by  fasting, 
and  strip  it  of  all  symmetry  by  undue 
exercise  and  devastating  baths. 

Excessive  fat  is  a  disease,  but  vio- 
lent cures  end  in  deadlier  diseases. 

And  is  there  no  cure,  at  once  suave 
and  certain? 

There  certainly  is;  and  to  make  it 


10    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

known  this  little  book  has  been  written 
by  an  expert  in  food  values — Doctrix 
doctorum. 


Ill 

THE  RIGHT   WAY 

THERE  is  nothing  new  about  the 
Mahdah  method  of  destroying 
corpulency.    It  is  as  old  as  Galen.    It 
was  known  to  Avicenna  and  to  Fi- 
cinus,  as  it  is  known  to  the  youngest 
doctor  sitting  on  the  tail-board  of  an 
ambulance. 
One  may  put  it  in  a  word  or  two : 
Eat  the  right  kind  of  food. 
There  is  no  need  of  starving  to  get 
one's  weight  down  to  the  proper  stand- 
ard of  beauty  and  efficiency.    One 
may  dine  and  dine  well  if  one  will  but 
dine  wisely.    One  may  indulge  one- 
self in  the  exquisite  pleasures  of  a  per- 
il 


12    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

fectly  composed  dinner — so  long  as  it 
be  scientifically  composed.  One  may 
lead  a  life  of  perfect  gustatorial  satis- 
faction— without  ascetic  restrictions. 
Even  the  round-faced  girl — for  whom 
the  hideous  phantom  of  obesity  lies  in 
wait  at  the  cross-roads  of  middle  life — 
need  not  shun  the  pleasant  table-joys; 
she  may  eat  if  only  she  will  wisely  eat. 

Certain  foods  make  for  fat;  and  it 
is  upon  these  carbonaceous  foods — 
starches  and  sugars  and  oils — that  fat 
humanity  unwisely  feeds. 

(To  the  scientist  there  is  nothing  so 
tragic  on  earth  as  the  sight  of  a  fat 
man  eating  a  potato.) 

The  human  animal,  lean  or  obese, 
must  eat  and,  if  he  is  to  know  the  glory 
of  health,  he  must  eat  well.  Starva- 
tion diets  never  did  anyone  any  good ; 


THE  RIGHT  WAY         13 

they  may  be  put  definitely  aside — 
with  the  wasting  drugs  and  the  fat- 
devouring  baths. 

There  is  only  one  right  way  of  com- 
bating corpulency  and  that  is  to  eat — 
and  grow  thin ;  it  is  the  way  Mahdah 
points  out  in  her  book. 

There  is  no  guess-work  about  it.  It 
has  been  tried  and  tested  on  both  sides 
of  the  sea.  In  Paris,  New  York;  on 
both  sides  of  the  sea  innumerable  la- 
dies walk  to  and  fro  in  slim  pulchri- 
tude, amazing  their  friends ;  they  have 
come  back  from  the  cross-roads  of  mid- 
dle life,  leaving  behind  them  the  obese 
phantom;  and  their  eyes,  young  and 
bright,  look  out  of  fair,  wrinkleless 
faces.  It  is  as  though  they  had  gone 
down  into  the  springs  of  life  and  come, 
regenerate,  up  into  the  world  again. 


14    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Innumerable  ladies — and  a  few  men. 
Not  so  many  men ;  for  it  is  a  dolesome 
truth  that  fat  men  are  not  so  keen  on 
winning  back  youthful  vigor  and  a 
young  waist  as  women  are ;  but  there  is 
withal  a  long  list  of  men  who  have 
joined  the  self-satisfied  band  of  those 
who  eat — and  grow  thin.  (We  are  a 
vain  lot  of  people,  we  admit — we 
flaunt  our  slim  comeliness  in  the  face 
of  fat  humanity  and  smile,  rather  self- 
consciously, when  Monsieur  Cent- 
Kilos  and  his  wife  go  by,  for  our  ideal 
of  plastic  beauty  is  the  panther  and  not 
the  pig.) 
And  the  rule  is  a  simple  one : — 
Eat  the  right  food  rightly  prepared. 
One  might  fancy  that  a  table  from 
which  the  carbonaceous  foods  were 
well-nigh  banished  would  have  a  mea- 


THE  RIGHT  WAY         15 

ger  look,  but  one  has  only  to  read  the 
Mahdah  menus — read  and  inwardly 
digest  them — to  discover  that  there  are 
subtler  gastronomic  joys  than  those  af- 
forded by  devouring  potatoes  or  swal- 
lowing lumps  of  fat.  This  diet  sup- 
plies the  exact  foods  required  by  the 
fat  man  or  fat  woman — not  only  for 
the  reducing  of  flesh  but  as  well  for  the 
upbuilding  of  healthy  tissue  and  the 
strengthening  of  the  whole  body.  The 
Mahdah  menus  are  arranged  accord- 
ing to  the  seasons.  In  summer,  for  in- 
stance, the  minimum  amount  of  car- 
bonaceous foods  enters  into  the  diet. 
For  the  winter  months  the  heat-pro- 
ducing foods  are  more  freely  admitted. 
There  need  be  no  insistence  on  this 
point,  for  the  menus  themselves  are 
explicit. 


i6    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Perhaps  it  is  well  to  point  out  that 
it  is  not  necessary — in  order  to  grow 
thin — to  eat  every  dish  given  in  the 
menu  for  the  day.  A  man  at  once  fat 
and  poor  might  find  some  of  the  dishes 
beyond  his  purse.  He  is  to  be  congrat- 
ulated, for  he  will  lose  flesh  just  so 
much  more  rapidly  than  his  fat  and 
richer  brother.  For  of  course  one  doe« 
not  want  to  eat  too  much.  The  idea  is 
to  eat  enough — as  a  panther  does ;  and 
not  to  eat  too  much  after  the  manner 
of  a  less  aesthetic  animal.  It  would  be 
difficult  for  anyone  to  get  fat  or  stay 
fat  on  the  bill-of-fare  which  has  been 
scientifically  prepared  for  this  book, 
but  one  will  grow  thin  more  quickly, 
more  healthfully,  more  comfortably,  if 
one  does  not  eat  too  much — even  of 
these  lean  dishes. 


THE  RIGHT  WAY         17 

Another  point,  and  one  of  impor- 
tance— 

No  wine  list  is  printed  on  the  back  of 
the  Mahdah  menus.  This  deficiency 
is  not  due  to  any  "mystical  horror  of 
fermented  drinks" — it  is  due  to  the 
somber  fact  that  wine  makes  for  corpu- 
lency. (Beer  and  ale  are  worse  still.) 
One  who  will  have  his  wine,  in  spite  of 
this  warning,  should  not  go  beyond  a 
glass  or  two  of  thin  Rhine-wine.  Bet- 
ter not;  in  fact  drink  of  any  kind  is  a 
bad  thing  at  meals — even  water ;  that 
way  fat  lies;  an  hour  after  the  meal 
one  may  drink,  and  the  best  thing  to 
drink  is  some  such  mineral  water  as 
Vichy  or  Vittel. 

(And   above   all,   don't   sleep   too 
much.) 


IV 

THE    FAT    MAN    IN    BROADWAY 

BRILLAT-SAVARIN,  like  many 
French  gentlemen,  fled  to  the 
United  States  to  escape  the  "Terreur" 
of  1 793.  He  observed,  as  many  other 
travelers  have,  the  unusual  proportion 
of  fat  men  in  New  York.  Is  it  a  heri- 
tage of  Dutch  ancestry?  Or  is  it  due, 
as  Brillat  surmised,  to  the  extraordi- 
nary amount  of  pastries,  pies,  sweets 
and  corn-products  eaten  in  that  com- 
monwealth*? Conjecture  runs  amok. 
Walking  in  Broadway  in  the  first 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Bril- 
lat-Savarin  saw  a  man — a  monument, 
a  mountain  of  a  man — who  might 

x8 


THE  FAT  MAN  19 

serve  as  lesson  to  this  later  (and 
scarce  leaner)  century;  and  he  wrote: 
"The  most  extraordinary  instance  of 
corpulency  I  have  ever  seen  was  that 
of  an  inhabitant  of  New  York,  whom 
many  of  my  readers  must  have  seen 
sitting  in  a  tavern  in  Broadway,  on  an 
enormous  arm-chair  with  legs  strong 
enough  to  bear  a  church.  Edward 
was  at  least  six  feet  four  in  height; 
and,  as  his  fat  had  swelled  him  out  in 
every  direction,  he  was  over  eight  feet 
at  least  in  girth.  His  fingers  were  like 
those  of  the  Roman  Emperor  who  used 
his  wife's  bracelets  for  rings ;  his  arms 
and  thighs  were  cylindrical,  as  thick 
as  the  waist  of  an  ordinary  man ;  and 
his  feet  like  those  of  an  elephant,  cov- 
ered with  the  overlapping  fat  of  the 
legs.    His  lower  eyelids  were  kept 


20   EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

down  by  the  weight  of  the  fat  on  his 
cheeks ;  but  what  made  him  more  hide- 
ous than  anything  else  was  the  three 
round  chins  of  more  than  a  foot  long 
hanging  over  his  breast,  so  that  his  face 
looked  like  the  capital  of  a  truncated 
pillar. 

"He  sat  thus  beside  a  window  of  a 
low  room  opening  on  the  street,  drink- 
ing from  time  to  time  a  glass  of  ale,  of 
which  there  was  a  huge  pitcher  always 
near. 

"His  singular  appearance  could  not 
fail  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  pass- 
ers-by, but  they  had  to  be  careful  not 
to  remain  too  long.  Edward  quickly 
sent  them  about  their  business,  calling 
out,  in  his  deep  tones,  *What  are  you 
staring  at  like  wild-cats'?' — 'Go  on 
your  way,  you  lazy  body' — *Off  with 


THE  FAT  MAN  21 

you,  you  good-for-nothing  dogs/ 
During  several  conversations  I  had 
with  him,  he  assured  me  he  was  by  no 
means  unhappy  and  that  if  death  did 
not  come  to  disturb  his  plans,  he  could 
willingly  remain  as  he  was  to  the  end 
of  the  world." 

Now  this  little  fragment  of  local 
history  is  not  without  significance. 
Edward,  elephant-footed,  girthed  like 
a  caisson,  was  content  to  remain  as  he 
was.  He  had  none  of  the  shame  of 
fatness  that  stings  even  the  most  in- 
different American  to-day.  To-day 
no  fat  man  pretends  that  he  is  paunch- 
proud.  He  would  fain  be  like  other 
men — his  height  measurably  greater 
than  his  width. 


RATHER    PERSONAL 

THE  worst  of  being  fat  is  that  it 
makes  one  ridiculous. 
The  witty  man,  doomed — I  am 
thinking  of  course  of  Mr.  Gilbert  K. 
Chesterton — to  walk  the  world  in  a 
suit  of  tallow,  tries  to  fend  off  the 
laughter  of  others  by  laughing  first  at 
himself.  It  is  heroic  and  pathetic. 
Mr.  Chesterton  (wearing  a  bracelet 
for  a  ring)  is  a  subject  for  tears,  not 
laughter — jest  he  never  so  waggishly  I 
No;  the  fat  man  may  clown  and  slap 
himself  and  wag  a  droll  forefinger,  but 
he  is  not  merry  at  all;  and  if  one 
should  sink  a  shaft  down  to  his  heart 

22 


RATHER  PERSONAL      23 

— or  drive  a  tunnel  through  to  it — one 
would  discover  that  it  is  a  sad  heart, 
black  with  melancholy.  Down  there, 
deep  under  the  billowy  surface  of  the 
man,  all  is  gloom.  He  knows  he  is 
ridiculous.  Because  when  he  sits 
down  on  a  bent  pin  he  never  knows 
it — and  only  hears  of  it  casually  from 
the  valet  who  brushes  his  trousers  the 
next  day — rude  little  boys  think  he 
has  no  feeling.  But  almost  always  he 
is  a  man  of  fine  and  tender  feelings; 
only  they  are  covered  up. 

He  falls  in  love.  (It  is  a  destiny — 
like  being  born  with  the  sun  in 
Aquarius ;  always  the  fat  man  falls  in 
love.)  And  this  is  his  bitterest  trag- 
edy. He  cannot  kneel  at  Beauty's 
feet  without  a  derrick  to  let  him  down ; 
and  a  man  who  goes  a-wooing  with  a 


24    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

derrick  looks  like  a  fool.  He  cannot 
clasp  the  dear  girl  to  his  heart — for 
fear  of  smothering  her. 

What  can  the  poor  man  do*? 

Fierce  burn  the  fires  of  love  within 
him  and  the  fiercer  they  burn  the  faster 
flees  the  terrified  girl — for  he  looks 
like  a  vat  of  boiling  oil;  and  that  is 
a  fearsome  thing  to  fall  into.  So, 
wrapped  in  tallow,  the  poor  lover  goes 
his  sebaceous  way — wearing  his  maid- 
en aunt's  bracelet  for  a  ring. 

Love  is  not  for  him  I 

For  him  there  is  only  the  "window 
of  a  low  room  opening  on  the  street," 
where  he  may  sit  and  jeer  at  himself  to 
keep  his  friends  from  jeering. 

A  tragedy  in  suet. 

Have  I  spoken  feelingly  of  that  man 


RATHER  PERSONAL      25 

who  wears  the  ring  whereof  you 
know? 

I  lay  down  my  pen  and  cross  the 
floor  and  look  into  the  tall  mirror;  I 
am  confronted  by  the  reflection  of  a 
slight  man,  slim-waisted,  with  narrow, 
beautiful  legs — ^^and  I  admire  his  lean 
gracility;  and  then  I  think  of  Edward 
in  the  historic  Broadway  window — of 
Mr.  Chesterton  in  Battersea;  and  I  say 
to  the  image  in  the  mirror:  "Even 
such  as  they  you  might  have  been  had 
it  not  been  for  the  Mahdah  menus!" 

For  I  narrate  this  fabula  of  myself. 

I,  too,  might  have  been  like  Mr. 
Chesterton — without  the  wit,  but  with 
the  shame  of  fatness  on  me  and  dia- 
mond buttons  in  my  shirt.  Too  long 
I  had  lived  in  the  restaurants  of  the 


26    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

world — fed  too  full  of  Paris  (guided 
by  the  wonderful  table-book  of  Row- 
land Strong),  of  Vienna,  of  Rome. 
The  gracilities,  whereof  there  has  been 
sufficient  mention,  were  slipping  away 
from  me,  hiding  themselves  in  fes- 
toons and  furbelows  of  fat.  For 
months,  for  a  year,  I  knew  it  not. 
One  never  does  know  that  one  is  get- 
ting fat.  One  knows  that  other  peo- 
ple are  getting  fat — that  they  are  fat. 
But  oneself?  Never  I  One's  tailor  is 
a  liar  and  his  tape-measure  a  fraud. 
One's  shirt-maker  is  in  the  conspiracy. 
Then  at  last  there  comes  a  day — the 
unavoidable  day — 

Do  you  remember  the  unhappy  swal- 
low who  discovered  (with  horror)  that 
he  did  not  make  a  summer  ? 

It  is  that  way.    One  day  (with  hor- 


RATHER  PERSONAL      27 

ror)  you  discover  you  are  fat.  You 
see  it  in  your  mirror.  More  tragically 
you  may  see  it  in  a  woman's  eyes. 
Then  of  two  things,  one :  Either  you 
sink,  cowardly,  in  the  sea  of  tallow 
and  your  life  as  a  man  is  over;  or,  you 
"take  advice." 

Frankly  I  am  one  of  those  who  took 
advice.  That  is  why  I  was  asked  to 
write  a  preface  to  this  book — which 
might  have  been  called  "The  Fat  Per- 
son's Vade  Mecutrf ;  after  all,  per- 
haps "Eat — and  Grow  Thin"  is  bet- 
ter; for,  if  you  follow  this  method,  you 
may  eat,  eat  of  savorsome  dishes — in 
a  word,  you  may  dine — and  eating  you 
will  grow  thin. 

And  stay  thin. 

As  the  book  speaks  up  for  itself  I  do 
not  see  what  need  there  is  for  a  preface 


28    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

at  all.  But  Mahdah  was  not  of  that 
opinion ;  said  she :  "A  book  without  a 
preface  is  as  inconvenant  as  a  man 
without  a  collar  on."  Wherefore  I 
button  on  this  collar  (a  detachable  col- 
lar, fortunately — and  you  can  take  it 
off  if  you  wish)  and  tie  round  it  a 
mauve  necktie. 


VI 

ABOUT   THE   BOOK 

AS  I  have  said,  Mahdah's  method 
is  an  ancient  one — known  even 
to  the  young  gentleman  who  drops  off 
the  tail-end  of  the  ambulance.  It  is 
based  on  a  scientific  knowledge  of  food 
values.  All  that  information  you  may 
get  for  yourself.  Any  reputable  phy- 
sician will  tell  you — -for  a  few  hun- 
dred dollars — to  stop  eating  starch, 
sugar  and  the  like.  He  will  even 
draw  up  a  pretty  diagram  in  black  and 
white.  Or  your  little  boy  or  little  girl 
— if  she,  too,  is  out  of  the  kindergarten 
— can   do   it   for  you,   after   school. 

Only — the  fatting  man  or  the  woman 
29 


30    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

who  is  "taking  on  flesh" — is  not  much 
better  off  for  advice  or  diagram.  It  is 
all  very  well  to  know  one  can't  eat 
corn  and  pork  and  macaroni  and  those 
Southern  Mammy  biscuits;  but  what 
CAN  one  eat? 

The  Mahdah  menus  tell  you  exactly 
what  to  eat — just  what  food- values 
should  be  banked  every  day.  The 
menus  are  composed.  Each  luncheon 
is  complete  in  itself.  Each  dinner  pro- 
vides exactly  the  nutriment  needed 
and  in  exactly  the  right  proportions. 
And  breakfast?  Oh,  we  of  the  slim- 
waisted  gracilities  breakfast  on  a  cup 
of  yellow  tea  or  a  cup  of  black  coffee  or 
a  dish  of  fresh,  ripe  fruit. 

With  these  menus  the  housekeeper 
may  set  a  table  at  once  non-fattening 
and  delicious.    From  these  menus  the 


ABOUT  THE  BOOK        31 

man  who  dines  in  the  restaurants 
may  select  what  tempting  dinners  he 
pleases — and  get  thin  by  eating  them. 
For  (it  cannot  be  said  too  often)  these 
menus  were  devised  by  an  expert  and 
accomplished  dinner-maker — ingeni- 
osa  ad  gulam. 

Of  course  there  are  certain  rules  to 
be  observed. 

If  you  have  bought  this  book  from 
honorable  motives  (and  not  merely  to 
read  the  preface)  you  will  observe 
these  rules;  and  if  you  do,  you  will 
find  at  the  end  of  a  few  months — say 
three — that  the  image  in  your  mirror 
will  have  lost  twenty  pounds.  The 
many  people  here  and  in  Paris  who 
have  followed  this  method  have  lost 
— I  state  an  average — two  pounds  a 
week    after    the    first    three    weeks. 


32    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Slowly — little  by  little,  pleasurably — 
not  sacrificing  table- joys — you  will 
win  back  the  winsome  waist  of  youth. 

Possibly,  you  say'? 

Inevitably.  It  is  axiomatic:  Fat 
foods  make  fat  and  lean  foods  make 
for  leanness.  And  the  Mahdah 
menus  show  the  lean  way. 


HOW  TO  EAT  AND  GROW 
THIN 

By  Mahdah 

SOMETIMES  corpulency  is  due 
to  over-eating  and  then  it  may  be 
checked  by  the  "starvation  cure" ;  but 
usually  this  drastic  treatment  is  dan- 
gerous and  unnecessary.  Corpulency 
(unless  it  is  the  result  of  definite  dis- 
ease) is  most  commonly  caused  by 
wrong  eating — that  is,  by  eating  too 
much  carbonaceous  food,  such  as 
starches,  sugars,  oils  and  other  fats. 
The  average  diet  consists  very  largely 
of  fat-making  foods,  beginning  with 
soup  and  going  down  through  the  list 
of  gravied  meats,  of  potatoes,  maca- 
u 


34    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

roni,  bread,  butter,  cream,  cheeses, 
ending  with  pastries,  puddings  and 
sweets.  When  such  a  meal  is  eaten, 
accompanied  by  draughts  of  beer,  or  a 
bottle  of  wine,  there  is  set  up  in  the 
body  a  fat-producing  factory  and  the 
result,  especially  for  those  who  are 
predisposed  to  corpulency,  is  inevita- 
ble. It  follows  that  the  natural  cure 
for  corpulency  is  to  stop  eating  the  fat- 
producing  foods.  Then,  slowly  the 
body  will  use  up  the  excess  of  fat. 
This  process  may  take  a  number  of 
months,  the  time  depending  upon  the 
degree  of  corpulency,  but  it  is  a  process 
without  danger,  without  injury  to  the 
health,  without  unpleasant  self-sacri- 
fice and,  also,  the  gradual  elimination 
of  fat  leaves  the  body  healthy  and 
strong  and  so  far  from  wrinkling  or 


HOW  TO  EAT  35 

deforming  the  skin  restores  it  to  its 
natural  freshness  and  beauty. 

The  average  loss  of  weight  in  those 
who  have  faithfully  followed  the 
method  described  in  this  book  is  for 
women  about  two  pounds  a  week  after 
the  first  three  weeks,  during  which 
time  very  little  decrease  is  noticeable ; 
for  men  the  reduction  is  a  trifle  less. 
A  great  deal  of  course  depends  upon 
the  temperament,  the  environment 
and  the  amount  of  exercise  taken,  but 
anyone  who  will  honestly  collaborate 
in  the  cure,  should  lose  from  twenty 
to  twenty-five  pounds  in  the  course  of 
the  first  three  months.  And  when  the 
desired  weight  has  been  attained,  the 
rules  need  not  be  so  strictly  obeyed, 
but  one  who  has  once  followed  the 
non-fattening  diet  is  not  at  all  likely 


36    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

ever  to  return  to  oily,  starchy  or  sugary 
food. 

Everyone  eats  too  much.  Almost 
all  corpulent  persons  sleep  too  much. 
From  these  two  facts  the  following 
rule  may  be  deduced :  "Eat  less  than 
you  have  been  in  the  habit  of  eating; 
and  sleep  less." 

The  things  you  must  not  eat  are 
these : 

"FORBIDDEN  FOOD" 

1st:  Pork,  ham,  bacon  and  the  fat 
of  any  meat. 

2nd:  Bread,  biscuits,  crackers,  any- 
thing made  of  the  flour  of  wheat,  corn, 
rye,  barley,  oats,  etc.  Cereals  and 
"breakfast  foods"  must  never  be  eaten. 

3rd :  Rice,  macaroni,  potatoes,  corn, 
dried  beans,  lentils. 


HOW  TO  EAT  37 

4th :  Milk,  cream,  cheese,  butter. 

5th:  Olive  oils,  or  grease  of  any 
kind. 

6th :  Pies,  cakes,  puddings,  pastries, 
custards. 

7th:  Iced  creams,  sirup-sweetened 
soda-water,  etc. 

8th:  Candies,  bonbons,  sweets. 

9th :  Wines,  beers,  ales,  spirits. 

It  may  seem  at  first  glance  that  when 
these  things  are  taken  away  there  is 
left  only  a  disguised  kind  of  starva- 
tion; but  the  most  casual  inspection 
of  the  Mahdah  menus  will  show  that 
these  fattening  foods  are  really  super- 
fluous and  that  more  than  enough  re- 
mains to  furnish  a  gourmefs  table. 
What  has  been  taken  away  is :  Starch, 
sugar,  oil  and  alcohol — nothing  else; 


38    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

and  their  removal  from  the  diet  of  the 
corpulent  person  means  the  certain 
loss  of  corpulency.  The  menus,  here 
given,  are  based  on  an  exact  knowl- 
edge of  just  what  must  be  eaten  in  or- 
der to  nourish  the  body  without  fatten- 
ing it.  They  are  so  combined  that 
they  give  the  variety  of  food  necessary 
for  a  normal  person  in  a  proper  nutri- 
tive ratio. 

In  cooking  the  various  dishes  it 
should  be  remembered  that  very  little 
butter,  and  no  oil,  fats  or  grease  are  to 
be  used.  None  of  the  plats  given  in 
the  menus  require  fats,  flour,  or  sugar. 
Where  sweetening  is  necessary  crystal- 
lose  or  saccharine  tablets — the  half- 
grain  tablet  is  the  most  convenient — 
should  be  used.  The  recipes  not  usu- 
ally printed  in  cookbooks  are  printed 


HOW  TO  EAT  39 

at  the  back  of  this  book.  When  reci- 
pes are  not  given  those  of  any  ordi- 
nary cookbook  may  be  followed,  if 
it  is  always  borne  in  mind  that  flour, 
sugar,  milk,  etc.,  are  NOT  TO  BE 
USED.  But  only  such  dishes  as  are 
wholly  satisfactory  without  these  fat- 
tening ingredients  have  been  given  a 
place  in  the  menus. 


DON'T 

Don't  sleep  too  much. 
Don't  take  naps. 

Don't  overeat,  even  of  lean  dishes. 
Don't  eat  unless  you  are  hungry. 
Don't  drink  with  your  meals. 
Don't  drink  alcoholic  beverages. 
Don't    eat    bread— except    gluten 
bread  toasted,  and  this  in  moderation. 
Don't  take  a  cab — ^WALK. 


THE  LAWS  OF  DIET 

YES,  the  list  of  things  one  must  not 
eat  may  seem  rather  appalling 
when  one  looks  at  it  for  the  first  time. 
Soup  and  bread  and  potatoes  and  ba- 
con and  sweets  and  one's  wine  or  beer 
seem  almost  a  necessary  part  of  the 
daily  meals  to  one  who  has  never  done 
without  them.  Bread  perhaps  is  the 
hardest  thing  to  do  without,  but  after 
a  while  the  stomach  ceases  to  demand 
it  and  one  does  not  miss  it  from  the 
daily  diet,  when  gluten  bread  is  used 
as  a  substitute. 

When  one  is  in  the  habit  of  drinking 
with  one's  meals  it  is  at  first  difficult  to 

do  without  every  kind  of  drink — even 
41 


42    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

water — but  after  a  few  days  "dry  eat- 
ing" becomes  a  matter  of  course ;  and  it 
will  be  found  that  a  much  smaller 
quantity  of  food  satisfies  the  appe- 
tite. 

The  list  of  things  one  may  eat  is 
far  longer  than  the  list  of  forbidden 
things.  For  breakfast  there  is  fruit, 
fresh  or  stewed,  and  twice  a  week 
boiled  or  poached  eggs  may  be  served ; 
coffee  or  tea — without  cream  or  milk, 
of  course,  but  sweetened,  if  desired,  by 
crystallose  or  saccharine.  Then  in  the 
menus  given  for  luncheons  and  din- 
ners there  will  be  found : 

All  kinds  of  meat  (except  pig  in  any 
form). 

All  kinds  of  game. 

All  kinds  of  sea-food — fish,  lobsters, 
oysters,  etc. 


THE  LAWS  OF  DIET      43 

All  kinds  of  fruit  (except  the  ba- 
nana and  grape) . 

All  kinds  of  salad — except  those 
made  of  forbidden  vegetables. 

All  kinds  of  meat  jellies. 

Mushrooms,  tomatoes,  cucumbers, 
peppers,  olives,  celery,  pickles,  chili 
sauce,  Worcestershire  sauce. 

All  green  vegetables,  such  as: 
string  beans,  spinach,  Brussels  sprouts, 
cauliflower,  celery,  beets,  beet-tops 
(cooked  like  spinach) ,  turnips,  carrots, 
squash,  celery  root,  salsify,  cabbage, 
endives,  artichokes,  radishes,  lettuce 
(which  may  likewise  be  cooked  like 
spinach),  parsnips,  egg-plant,  toma- 
toes, onions,  asparagus,  escarole  (also 
cooked  as  spinach  or  eaten  as  a  salad) 
— and  any  others  mentioned  in  the  list 
of  menus. 


44    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

It  is  evident  that  one's  choice  of  ap- 
petizing dishes  is  not  greatly  restricted 
and  that  one  may  eat  very  well  with 
the  happy  certainty,  also,  of  growing 
thin. 

The  food  that  has  been  selected  in 
the  accompanying  menus  for  daily  con- 
sumption contains  all  that  is  needed 
for  the  sustenance  of  the  body — every- 
thing needed  to  strengthen  brain  and 
body — and  no  needed  food-value  has 
been  neglected  or  overlooked.  Each 
menu  is  composed  of  an  agreeable  va- 
riety of  specially  selected  and  spe- 
cially tested  dishes  and,  by  adding  a 
plat  of  forbidden  food  (if  one  wishes 
to  fatten  a  lean  guest)  one  may  give 
a  dinner  of  which  Voisin  or  Durand 
would  boast.    The  hostess  has  only  to 


THE  LAWS  OF  DIET      45 

hand  the  book  of  menus  to  her  cook 
and  think  no  more  about  it. 

There  are  many  things  to  consider 
in  preparing  a  diet,  beyond  the  mere 
elimination  of  non-fattening  foods. 
These  menus  have  been  arranged  not 
merely  to  make  you  thin  (any  starva- 
tion diet  will  do  that)  but  to  build  up 
the  tissues  and  give  perfect  health. 
To  gain  this  end  you  must  eat  and  eat 
well;  and  that  is  what  you  will  do 
when  you  begin  to  follow  the  menus. 

It  is  almost  as  important  to  guard 
against  fat  as  it  is  to  get  rid  of  it,  so 
these  menus  will  prove  useful  to  many 
who  have  not  yet  crossed  the  border 
line  of  corpulency.  And  to  the  corpu- 
lent it  should  be  said :  "Never  under 
any  circumstances — even   when  you- 


46    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

have  reduced  to  the  desired  weight  and 
have,  to  some  degree,  discontinued  the 
diet — never  eat  potatoes,  rice,  white 
bread  (toasted  gluten  bread  is  much 
more  nourishing  and  not  fattening), 
macaroni  or  sweets. 

Recipes  for  the  less  common  dishes 
are  given.  The  others  are  in  all  cook- 
books. 

Regarding  the  Turkish,  Spanish  and 
Russian  dishes  given,  they  may  be 
eaten  or  not,  as  you  wish.  For  in- 
stance, the  Dolmas  or  Turkish  mutton 
is  a  very  nice  dish,  and  it  has  nothing 
fattening  in  it,  but  plain  boiled  mut- 
ton with  mint  or  caper  sauce  will  be 
simpler  and  answer  the  purpose  quite 
as  well — if  not  better.  The  same  ap- 
plies to  the  Srasis  or  veal,  Polish  style. 
Plain  roast  veal  can  be  substituted, 


THE  LAWS  OF  DIET      47 

though  Srasis  makes  an  agreeable 
change. 

Barsch,  also,  may  be  too  complicated 
for  some  kitchens.  In  that  case  re- 
place it  by  serving  plain  roast  duck. 

Baked  or  steamed  apples  and  pears 
are  recommended. 

Use  crystallose  or  saccharine  to 
sweeten  the  water  used  in  the  cooking 
with  the  addition  of  a  sliced  lemon 
and  some  nutmeg.  For  those  who  are 
already  very  stout,  I  would  suggest  a 
lunch  consisting  simply  of  salad  and 
fresh,  ripe  fruit  several  times  a  week. 

For  all  salads  use  the  Diet  Dressing. 
It  is  really  excellent.  For  coleslaw 
use  the  boiled  dressing  (without  the 
flour)  given  in  some  of  the  cookbooks. 

All  the  vegetables  should  be  boiled 
in  water  and  seasoned  with  salt  and 


48    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

pepper.  Paprika  is  very  flavorsomc 
and  rare  meat  juice  of  any  kind  (if 
lean)  poured  over  the  vegetables  adds 
to  their  flavor.  Chili  sauce  and  sim- 
ilar sauces  add  to  the  flavor  of  the 
vegetables. 

Those  who  select  the  plainest  dishes 
in  the  menus  will  reduce  the  quickest. 

It  is  true  of  course  that  the  nutritive 
value  of  food  lies  in  the  relation  which 
the  several  substances  bear  to  the  or- 
ganism they  are  to  nourish.  No  two 
human  organisms  are  exactly  alike  and 
the  thinning  diet  laid  down  in  these 
menus  must  be — like  any  diet  of  what- 
ever nature — more  or  less  modified  to 
suit  individual  cases,  but  such  changes 
are  easily  made.  If  the  mutton  in  one 
day's  menu  does  not  agree  with  you, 
you  have  but  to  replace  it  with  beef; 


THE  LAWS  OF  DIET      49 

and  if  you  do  not  like  duck  you  may 
take  a  fowl  instead.  But  in  most 
of  the  menus  no  substitution  will  be 
necessary;  they  are  ample  enough  to 
permit  you  to  pick  and  choose. 

This  natural,  simple  method  of  cur- 
ing obesity  has  brought  health  and 
happiness  to  hundreds  of  the  corpulent 
and,  wherever  it  has  been  tried,  it  has 
proved  unfailingly  successful.  You 
have  but  to  follow  it  faithfully  and 
loyally,  and  it  will  do  for  you  what  it 
has  done  for  others — for  men  and 
women  and  for  children.  You  have 
only  to  persevere  and  week  by  week 
and  month  by  month  you  will  see  that 
you  are  going  back  to  your  healthy, 
normal  condition,  having  lost  all  su- 
perfluous fat  and  recovered  pristine 
energy. 


50    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Above  all,  be  cheerful.  Try  and 
SEE  yourself  growing  thin.  Remem- 
ber the  mind  exercises  a  powerful  in- 
fluence on  the  body.  And  do  not  for- 
get that  an  indolent,  indoor  life — the 
breakfast  in  bed  and  afternoon-nap 
kind  of  life — slowly  but  surely  in- 
creases flesh. 

In  addition  to  eating  the  right  food 
try  and  lead  the  right  life. 

Mahdah. 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS 

FOR 

DECEMBER,  JANUARY  AND 
FEBRUARY 

(^Recipes  are  given  for  dishes  marked  with  a  Star*.) 

Dinner 

Raw  Oysters. 

Roast  Turkey,  with  cranberry  sauce. 

String  Beans. 

Salad  Romaine. 

Fruit. 

Lunch 

Minced  Turkey. 

Fruit  Salad. 

Stewed  Prunes. 

Dinner 

Mussels  (Mariniere)  *  or  fish  in  sea- 
son. 

53 


54    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Dolmas  (Mutton,  Turkish  fashion).* 
Broiled  Mushrooms. 
Roast  Fowl,  with  Aspic  jelly. 
Coleslaw  (boiled  dressing)  .* 
Stewed  Apples,  with  lemon  and  cinna- 
mon flavoring. 

Lunch 

Broiled  Lobster. 

Cold  Fowl,  with  any  relish. 

Stuffed  Eggs. 

Sliced  Oranges. 

Dinner 

Clam  Cocktails. 
Fish. 

Venison  Steak,  with  Aspic  jelly,  truf- 
fled. 
French  Beans. 
Grapefruit  Salad. 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     55 

Lunch 

Steamed  Oysters. 

Hashed  Venison  in  ramekins. 

Apple  and  Celery  Salad. 

Dinner 

Oysters. 
Fish. 

Roast  Guinea-fowl,  with  pickled  wal- 
nuts. 
Mashed  Turnips. 
Pineapple  Salad.* 
Gelatine  (lemon  flavor) . 

Lunch 

Clam  Cocktails. 
Broiled  Lamb  Chops. 
Stewed  Celery. 
Sliced  Apples  with  Prunes. 


56    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Dinner 
Oysters. 

Fish. 

Boiled  Tongue,  with  tomato  sauce. 

Roast  Pheasant,  quince  sauce. 

Brussels  Sprouts. 

Apple  Souffle. 

Lunch 
Lobster  Salad. 

Poached  Eggs,  with  puree  of  sprouts. 
Apple  Sauce. 

Dinner 

Clams  on  the  Half  Shell  (with  any 
relish) . 

Baked  Fish. 

Roast  Veal. 

Macedoine  of  Vegetables. 

Lettuce  Salad  with  Egg  (diet  dress- 
ing).* 

Fresh  Fruit. 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     57 

Lunch 

Hashed  Veal  (Klopps).* 

Stewed  Carrots  and  Turnips  cut  in 

dice. 
Sliced  Oranges. 

Dinner 
Oysters. 

Broiled  Fish  (in  season) . 

Barsch  (Duck,  Polish  style)  .* 

Cauliflower. 

Sliced  Hawaiian  Pineapple. 

Lunch 
Boiled  Codfish,  tomato  sauce. 
Cold  Duck. 

Celery  and  Apple  Salad. 
Stewed  Fruit  (in  season) . 

Dinner 
Oysters. 

Fish. 


58    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Hare  (withsourkrout).* 

Salsifis. 

Salad. 

Fruit. 

Lunch 
Broiled  Sweetbreads,  with  stewed  cel- 
ery. 
Quail. 
Endives. 
Grapefruit. 

Dinner 

Oyster  Cocktail. 
Steamed  Fish. 
Partridges  in  Cabbage. 
Artichokes  (vinaigrette).* 
Stewed  Plums. 

Lunch 
Poached  Eggs,  with  puree  of  turnip. 
Cold  Partridge. 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     59 

Coleslaw. 
Stewed  Pears. 

Dinner 
Oysters  or  Clams. 
Broiled  Chicken  Giblets. 
Filet  of  Beef. 
Puree  of  Celery  Root, 
Fruit  Salad. 

Lunch 
Olives,  Celery,  Radishes. 
Cold  Beef,  with  horse-radish. 
Baked  or  Steamed  Apples,  flavored 
with  lemon. 


MAHDAH  MENUS 

FOR 

MARCH,  APRIL  AND  MAY 

Dinner 

Oyster  Cocktails. 

Fish  (in season). 

Boiled  or  Broiled  Chicken. 

Parsnips  and  Onions. 

Salad  Romaine. 

Spiced  Fruit. 

Lunch 
Olives,  Celery. 

Minced  Chicken  with  Mushrooms. 
Pineapple  Salad.* 

Dinner 

Broiled  Shad. 

Roast  Lamb,  with  mint  sauce. 
60 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     61 

Brussels  Sprouts. 

Tomatoes  and  Cucumbers  (diet  dress- 
ing).* 

Strawberry  Water  Ice  (sweetened 
with  saccharine) . 

Lunch 
Deviled  Eggs  on  Asparagus  Tips. 
Cold  Roast  Lamb,  with  mint  or  to- 
mato jelly. 
Salad. 
Mandarins. 

Dinner 

Broiled  King  Fish. 

Calves'  Brains,  with  truffles. 

Roast  Green  Duckling,  stuffed  with 

olives  and  celery. 
Eggplant  (Turkish  style)  .* 
Fruit. 


62    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Lunch 
Broiled    Calves'    Liver,    with    string 

beans.    • 
Cold  Duckling. 

Tomato  and  Water  Cress  Salad. 
Fruit. 

Dinner 
Soft-shell  Crabs. 
Broiled  Lambs'  Kidneys,  with  chicken 

giblets. 
Boiled  Corned  Beef,  with  cabbage. 
Lemon  Gelatine. 

Lunch 
Scallops,  with  chili  sauce. 
Smoked  Minced  Beef  with  Eggs. 
Strawberries. 

Dinner 
Shad. 
Roast  Veal. 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     63 

Cauliflower,  tomato  sauce. 
Broiled  Mushrooms. 
Compote  of  Stewed  Fruit. 

Lunch 

Kippered  Herring. 

Minced  Veal  with  Dropped  Eggs. 

Fruit. 

Dinner 

Clams  on  Half  Shell. 

Broiled  Spring  Chicken. 

Asparagus. 

Salad. 

Fruit. 

Lunch 

Lambs'  Kidney,  with  onions.* 
Vegetable  Salad  (Harlequin).* 
Stewed  Pears. 


64    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Dinner 

Boiled  Cod  Steak  (any  fish  relish) . 
Leg  of  Spring  Lamb. 
Puree  of  Turnips. 
Artichokes  (vinaigrette).* 
Fruit. 

Lunch 

Cold  Lamb. 

Lettuce  and  Egg  Salad. 

Sliced  Oranges  and  Pineapple. 

Dinner 

Fish. 

Squab  or  Pigeons. 
Puree  of  Spinach. 
Russian  Salad. 
Fruit. 

Lunch 
Dropped  Eggs,  with  puree  of  cauli- 
flower. 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     65 

Fish  Salad. 
Fruit. 

Dinner 

Fish  or  Crab-flakes. 
Filet  Jardiniere. 
Asparagus  Tips. 
Sourkrout  Salad.* 
Fruit. 

Lunch 

Russian  Salad,   boiled  dressing    (as 

hors  d'oeuvre).* 
Roast  Pigeon,  with  stewed  celery. 
Fruit. 

Dinner 

Filet  of  Weakfish. 

Broiled  Calves'   Brains,  with  puree 

of  celery. 
Roast  Chicken,  with  truffles. 


66   EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Eggplant,  tomato  sauce. 
Fruit  Salad. 

Lunch 
Cold  Chicken,  with  meat  jelly. 
Stewed  Carrots  and  Turnips  (diced) . 
Fruit. 


MAHDAH  MENUS 

FOR 

JUNE,  JULY  AND  AUGUST 

Dinner 
Fish. 

Roast  Sirloin  of  Beef. 
String  Beans. 
Stewed  Tomatoes. 

Chicken  Salad  (use  the  boiled  dress- 
ing). 
Fruit  Water  Ice. 

Lunch 
Cold  Roast  Beef,  with  olives  and  any 

relish. 
Chicken  Salad. 
Raspberries. 

<S7 


68    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Dinner 

Fish. 

Broiled  or  Steamed  Spring  Chicken. 

Asparagus. 

Egg  and  Lettuce  Salad. 

Strawberries. 

Lunch 
Olives,  Radishes. 
Cold  Tongue. 
Puree  of  Spinach. 
Iced  Tea  with  Sliced  Orange. 

Dinner 

Fish. 

Roast  Lamb. 

Boiled    Beet-tops,    with    hard-boiled 

egg. 
Tomato  Salad. 

Stewed  Rhubarb. 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     69 

Lunch 

Poached  Eggs,  puree  of  onion. 

Cold  Lamb. 

Sliced  Cucumbers,  with  green  peppers. 

Fruit. 

Dinner 

Broiled  Smelts. 

Veal  Loaf,  with  new  cabbage  (boiled) . 

Salad  of  Green  Beans  and  Chopped 

Carrots  (cooked). 
Melon. 

Lunch 

Young  Onions. 

Lamb  Chops. 

Tomato  and  Lettuce  Salad. 

Cantaloupe  Frappe. 

Iced  Tea  with  Lemon. 


70   EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Dinner 

Fish. 

Broiled  Tenderloin  Steak,  with  kid- 
neys. 
Puree  of  Spinach. 
Beets. 
Pineapple,  sliced. 

Lunch 
Stuffed  Eggs,  with  tomato  sauce. 
Cold  Tongue  (with  relish) . 
Blackberries. 
Iced  Tea. 

Dinner 

Fish. 

Roast  Capon,  with  asparagus  tips. 

Cauliflower. 

Cucumber  and  Tomato  Salad,  with 

cress. 
Huckleberries. 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     71 

Lunch 

Broiled    Lamb's    Fries,    with    string 

Beans. 
Chicken  Salad. 
Sliced  Peaches. 

Dinner 

Fish. 

Broiled  Chicken  Giblets,  with  mush- 
rooms. 
Roast  Lamb,  with  mint  sauce. 
Endives. 
Strawberry  Ice. 

Lunch 

Clams  on  half  shell. 
Minced  Lamb. 
Vegetable  Salad. 
Stewed  Berries. 


72    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Dinner 

Fish. 

Boiled  Corned  Beef,  with  new  cab- 
bage and  onions. 
Stewed  Celery. 
Tomato  Gelatine,  with  lettuce  and 

Blackberries. 

Lunch 
Calves'  Brains,  with  tomato  sauce. 
Asparagus  Salad. 
Huckleberry  Gelatine. 

Dinner 

Fish. 

Veal  Cutlets  (cut  very  thin  and  slowly 

broiled) . 
Boiled  Beets  with  Onions. 
Pineapple  Salad  on  lettuce  hearts. 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     73 

Lunch 
Shrimp  Salad. 
Veal  Hash. 
Raspberries  and  Currants. 

Dinner 

Baked  Fish. 

Sweetbreads,  with  chopped,  boiled  car- 
rots. 
Cold  Tongue,  tomato  sauce. 
Sliced  Cucumbers,  diet  dressing. 
Peaches. 

Lunch 
Lamb  Chops  or  Steak. 
Puree  of  Lettuce.* 
Chicory  or  Dandelion  Salad. 
Fruit. 


MAHDAH  MENUS 

FOR 

SEPTEMBER,  OCTOBER  AND 
NOVEMBER 

Dinner 

Oysters. 

Lobster. 

Corned  Beef  and  Cabbage. 
Spinach  with  egg. 
Stewed  Apples. 

Lunch 
Steamed  Oysters. 

Cold  Corned  Beef,  with  horse-radish. 
Stewed  Prunes. 

Dinner 

Broiled  Cod,  with  green  peppers. 
Saddle  of  Mutton,  caper  sauce. 

74 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     75 

Squash  boiled  with  young  onions. 
Endive  Salad.* 
Baked  Pears,  spiced. 

Lunch 
Stuffed  Eggs,  with  hot  tomato  sauce. 
Cold  Mutton,  Aspic  jelly. 
Melon. 

Dinner 

Boiled  Haddock. 

Calves  Head,  sauce  vinaigrette.* 

Roast  Veal. 

Beets. 

Cauliflower  Salad. 

Sliced  Peaches. 

Lunch 
Cold  Veal  (chili  sauce) . 
Broiled  Calves'  Liver,  with  boiled  let- 
tuce.* 
Stewed  Apples  and  Pears. 


76    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Dinner 
Oysters. 

Fish. 

Roast  Goose,  with  apple  sauce. 

Boiled  Onions  and  Carrots. 

Green  Peppers,  stuffed  with  chopped 

beans  (diet  dressing) . 
Melon. 

Lunch 
Cold  Goose. 
Chicory  Salad. 
Grapefruit. 

Dinner 

Oysters. 

Baked  Liver,  with  onions. 

Green  Beans,  with  broiled  tomatoes. 

Puree  of  Chicory. 

Lobster  Salad. 

Baked  Apples. 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     77 

Lunch 
Hamburger  Steak  with  Onions. 
Celery  and  Apple  Salad. 
Sliced  Oranges. 

Dinner 

Clams. 

Fish. 

Roast  Turkey,  cranberry  sauce. 

Puree  of  Cauliflower. 

Sliced  Tongue  and  Tomato  Salad. 

Fruit. 

Lunch 

Steamed  Oysters. 

Cold  Turkey,  with  cranberry  sauce. 

Stewed  Peaches. 

Dinner 

Fish. 

Hashed  Turkey,  with  mushrooms. 

Vegetable  Salad. 

Stewed  Fruit. 


78    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

Lunch 
Tenderloin  Steak. 
Shrimp  Salad. 
Apple  Souffle. 

Dinner 
Oysters. 
Fish. 

Wild  Rabbit  or  Hare. 
Boiled  Chicory  (cooked  like  spinach) . 
Tomato  Salad. 
Apricots. 

Lunch 
Broiled  Mushrooms. 
Cold  Game. 

Meat  Jelly,  with  hard-boiled  eggs. 
Watermelon. 

Dinner 
Oysters. 
Fish. 
Roast  Goose. 


THE  MAHDAH  MENUS     79 

Mashed  Turnips. 
Escarole  Salad. 
Peach  Souffle. 

Lunch 
Sweetbreads. 
Stuffed  Olives. 
Cold  Roast  Goose. 
Stewed  Pears. 

Dinner 
Broiled  Salmon. 
Boiled  Beef  with  Spinach. 
String  Beans. 
Puree  of  Scotch  Chard. 
Apple  Souffle. 

Lunch 
Hashed  Beef,  with  onions  and  tomato 

sauce. 
Eggplant. 
Grapefruit  Salad. 


RECIPES 


MUSSELS  (Mariniere) 

Wash  the  mussels  in  several  waters, 
using  a  small  knife  and  a  brush  that 
no  particle  of  dirt  may  adhere  to  the 
shells.  When  they  are  perfectly  clean 
put  them  in  a  large  saucepan  with  a 
tumbler  of  cold  water.  Into  this  chop 
a  young  carrot,  a  sprig  of  parsley,  and 
a  large  Spanish  onion.  Tie  in  a  piece 
of  cheesecloth  a  bay  leaf,  a  little 
thyme,  and  rub  the  sides  of  the  sauce- 
pan with  garlic.  Salt  and  pepper 
(paprika  is  excellent).  Cook  over  a 
hot  fire  until  the  mussels  begin  to  open. 
Then  lift  them  into  a  hot  dish  and 
continue  cooking  the  juice  until  the 

carrot   and   onion    are    done.    Then 
83 


84    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

strain  off  the  liquid  through  a  cloth 
and  pour  over  the  mussels.  The  onion 
and  chopped  carrot  may  be  left  in  the 
liquid  if  desired.  The  Mariniere  will 
not  be  successful  unless  the  mussels 
have  been  perfectly  cleaned,  as  any 
grit  that  might  adhere  to  them  would 
settle  into  the  sauce.  When  the  de- 
sired weight  has  been  reached  and  the 
diet  has  been  relaxed,  use  a  tumbler 
full  of  any  dry  white  wine  instead  of 
the  water  and  add  a  small  piece  of  but- 
ter to  the  sauce. 

EGGPLANT  (Turkish  Style) 

Wash  and  peel  two  good-sized  egg- 
plants and  chop.  Put  a  pound  of 
raw  mutton  through  the  meat-chop- 
per. Season,  using  paprika.  Add  a 
chopped  onion  and  a  sprig  of  parsley. 


RECIPES  85 

When  the  mixture  is  very  fine,  put  in 
a  bake  dish  and  pour  over  a  rich  to- 
mato sauce  and  bake  slowly. 

BARSCH  (Duck,  Polish  Style) 

Cover  a  duck,  well  seasoned,  with 
equal  parts  of  cold  water  and  beet- 
juice.  Bring  to  a  boil  and  skim. 
Add  one  pound  and  a  half  of  the  round 
of  beef,  two  large  Spanish  onions,  two 
leeks,  a  bunch  of  celery,  and  half  a 
dozen  cloves.  Cover  and  cook  very 
slowly.  When  the  meat  is  done  strain 
off  the  bouillon,  cool,  remove  all  fat 
and  clarify  with  the  whites  of  eggs. 
Carve  the  duck  as  for  serving,  place 
the  slices  of  beef  cut  thin  round  the 
outer  edge  of  the  dish,  with  alternate 
rows  of  beets  (which  furnished  the 
beet- water) .    Thicken  the  gravy  with 


86   EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

the  beaten  yokes  of  eggs  by  setting  in 
a  pan  of  hot  water  and  stirring  as  for 
custard.  To  this  sauce  add  some 
cooked  mushrooms.  Pour  over  the 
meat  and  serve.  This  sauce,  made 
with  the  yolk  of  eggs,  should  not  be 
eaten  until  the  diet  has  been  relaxed, 
as  eggs  are  only  recommended  in  mod- 
eration, but  for  special  occasions  it 
may  be  indulged  in. 

DOLMAS 

Take  the  tender  leaves  of  a  young 
cabbage,  place  three  or  four  together 
and  fill  with  the  following  mixture : 

Two  pounds  of  raw  mutton  hashed 
through  the  meat-chopper,  two  large 
onions,  one-half  cup  chopped  parsley, 
salt  and  paprika.    Stir  in  three  beaten 


RECIPES  87 

eggs,  form  the  mixture  into  oblong 
meat  balls,  roll  and  tie  in  thinly-but- 
tered cabbage  leaves.  Place  the  Dol- 
mas  in  a  bake  dish  in  layers  with  a 
plate  to  press  them  down  and  keep  in 
place.  Cover  with  the  stock  of  any 
meat  and  cook  slowly  one  and  a  half 
hours.  When  done  make  a  sauce  of 
the  juice  with  the  yolks  of  eggs  or  sim- 
ply pour  over  the  Dolmas.  The  Dol- 
mas  are  very  good  served  with  tomato 
sauce.  A  can  of  Campbell's  con- 
densed tomatoes,  to  which  has  been 
added  a  boiled  onion,  finely  chopped, 
and  a  bay  leaf  for  flavor,  makes  an  ex- 
cellent and  quickly  prepared  tomato 
sauce. 

See  Barsch,  page  85,  for  the  sauc*. 


88    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

VEAL  KLOPPS 

Two  cups  of  finely  minced,  cooked 
veal. 

Juice  of  one  small  onion;  salt  and 
paprika. 

A  little  grated  lemon  rind. 

The  unbeaten  whites  of  three  eggs. 

Add  the  onion- juice,  seasoning  and 
lemon  rind  to  the  veal  and  form  a 
paste  of  the  seasoned  meat  with  the 
whites  of  the  eggs.  Shape  into  small 
balls  and  drop  a  few  at  a  time  into 
boiling  salted  water.  Cook  five  min- 
utes and  serve  plain  or  with  tomato 
sauce. 

SALADS  AND  SALAD  DRESS- 
ING 

THE   DIET   DRESSING 

Two  tablespoonfuls  vinegar. 
A  pincVi  of  salt  and  paprika. 


RECIPES  89 

One-quarter  teaspoonful  mustard 
(dry) . 

One  teaspoonful  of  chives  chopped 
fine  or  parsley. 

One  teaspoonful  tomato  catsup  or, 
if  preferred,  Walnut  or  Worcester- 
shire sauce. 

Rub  the  salad  bowl  with  an  onion 
or  with  garlic,  mix  the  salt,  paprika, 
and  mustard  together.  Add  the  vine- 
gar, catsup  and  chives  and  pour  over 
the  salad.  A  finely  chopped  hard- 
boiled  egg  may  be  used  from  time  to 
time. 

SORREL  AND  LETTUCE 

Combined  makes  a  tasty  salad,  like- 
wise the  endive,  the  field  dandelion, 
celery  and  chicory.  Sprinkle  the 
leaves  with  the  finely  chopped  chives 


90   EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

and  rub  the  salad  bowl  with  the  garlic 
or  with  an  onion. 

CHIVES 

May  be  bought  growing  of  any  grocer 
and  if  kept  moist  will  last  quite  a  long 
time.  They  are  very  nice  chopped  in 
the  string  beans. 

HASHED  LAMB  SALAD 

Hashed  lamb  or  mutton  left  over 
makes  an  excellent  salad  combined 
with  a  cupful  of  finely  chopped  cooked 
string  beans,  hashed  with  a  few  sprigs 
of  mint  and  the  diet  dressing. 

FISH  SALAD 

A  chopped  fish  salad  that  may  be 
used  is  made  of  any  kind  of  cold  left- 
over whitefish,  hashed  with  hard- 
boiled  eggs,  a  teaspoonful  of  lemon 


RECIPES  91 

juice  and  about  half  a  cucumber. 
Either  the  diet  or  the  boiled  dressing 
may  be  used. 

HARLEQUIN  SALAD 

One  cup  each  of  red  and  white  cab- 
bage. 

One  cup  of  string  beans. 

One  half  cup  of  boiled  beets. 

One  chopped  onion  (boiled) . 

One  half  cup  of  carrots  (cooked) . 

Salt  and  paprika. 

The  vegetables  may  be  cooked  to- 
gether and  diced,  chilled,  and  served 
with  the  diet  dressing.  Of  course 
young  spring  vegetables  are  prefer- 
able. 

ARTICHOKE,  SAUCE  VINAI- 

GRETTE 
Boil  the  artichokes  until  tender  and 


92    EAT  AND  GROW  THIN 

serve  with  the  diet  dressing,  which  is 
in  reality  a  sauce  vinaigrette. 

RUSSIAN  SALAD 

Chop  any  kind  of  cold  cooked  meat 
(chicken  is  best)  with  equal  parts  of 
cold  cooked  fish.  To  this  add  cold 
boiled  carrots,  green  beans,  beets,  on- 
ions or  any  favorite  vegetable.  Mix 
two  hard-boiled  eggs  and  a  little  celery 
hashed  very  fine  in  the  diet  dressing 
and  serve  cold. 

SOURKROUT  SALAD 

Consists  of  the  diet  dressing  poured 
over  a  good  dish  of  sourkrout. 

PINEAPPLE  SALAD 

Drain  a  can  of  Hawaiian  pineapple, 
place  on  crisp  lettuce  leaves  and  pour 


RECIPES  93 

over  the  diet  dressing,  without  the 
chili  sauce. 

GREENS 

There  are  several  kinds  of  greens 
that  are  excellent  cooked  as  spinach, 
chopped  fine  and  served  either  with 
pepper  and  salt  or  a  little  vinegar. 
These  are  the  beet-tops,  large  heads  of 
lettuce  leaves,  Brussels  sprouts,  es- 
carole  and  chicory  and  Scotch  chard. 


THE  REASON  WHY 

THE  Mahdah  menus  are  based  on 
the  dietary  charts  issued  by  the 
United  States  department  of  Agricul- 
ture (office  of  Experimental  Stations, 
Mr.  A.  C.  True,  director)  and  pre- 
pared by  Mr.  C.  F.  Langworthy, 
expert  in  charge  of  Nutrition  Investi- 
gations. They  furnish  the  latest  and 
completest  statement  of  food-constitu- 
ents. 

It  is  evident  that  a  thinning  diet 
should  eliminate — in  so  far  as  is  con- 
sistent with  general  health — both  the 
fats  which  are  stored  in  the  body  as 
fats  and  the  carbohydrates  which  in 
the  body  are  transformed  into  fats. 
This  is  what  has  been  done  in  the 

94 


THE  REASOK  WHY      95 

menus  in  this  book.  Although  the 
amount  of  fats  and  carbohydrates 
which  enter  the  dishes  given  for  each 
day  is  slight,  a  sufficiency  has  been  ad- 
mitted to  insure  the  necessary  heat- 
yielding  fuels. 

Here  is  a  list  of  the  foods  which 
MUST  NOT  be  eaten  and  the  reason 
why. 

A  slight  study  of  the  proportions  of 
fat  and  carbohydrates  they  contain 
will  make  perfectly  clear  the  reason 
why  they  are  excluded  from  a  diet 
which  is  meant  to  destroy  fat.  It  will 
be  seen  that,  in  certain  instances,  fruits 
and  nuts  are  as  diligent  fat-producers 
as  bacon  or  corn. 

The  figures  given  in  the  following 
list  are  quoted  from  Mr.  C.  F.  Lang- 
worthy's  valuable  compilation : 


FORBIDDEN  FOOD  AND  WHY 

Because  it  contains  percentage  of 

You  must  Carbo- 

not  eat                                        Fats  hydrates 

Milk 4  5 

Cream 18.5  4.5 

Cheese 18.5  2.4 

Pork 30 

Ham    38.8 

Olive  oil 100 

Bacon 67 

Lard 100 

Corn 4.3  73.4 

Wheat 2.2  73.7 

Buckwheat 2.2  73 

Rice 2  77 

Oats 3  69.2 

White  bread 1.3  53 

96 


FORBIDDEN  FOOD       97 

Because  it  contains  percentage  of 
You  must  Carbo- 

not  eat  Fats  hydrates 

Macaroni    1.5               15.8 

Sugar 100 

Stick  candy  ......  96 

Potato 0.1                18.4 

Green  corn i.l               19.7 

Figs   74 

Banana 22 

Grapes 1.6               19 

Unf  ermented  Grape 

Juice 20.3 

The  chestnut 7.0               74.2 

The  walnut 63.4                16.1 

Raisins 3.3               76.1 

All  these  dangerous  fat-making 
foods  have  been  excluded  from  the 
menus;  but  there  remain  innumerable 
dishes  at  once  satisfying  and  fascinat- 
ing. 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


Series  9482 


t\.l 


B 


LTURNED  SEP  111985 
P 


HU  MAY  2  2 1988  18 


3  1205  00431    1252 


,    LI3PARY  ^ACl'J^V 


S    000  809  761     0 


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